Austin turns ONE!

March 3, 2011

I cannot believe my baby is one year old today. My how the time does fly. Here is a picture of little Austin actually asleep in his crib the morning of his actual birthday. His birthday bash was the previous weekend.

The best present of all, Austin Edward Semmler. Here he is at his first birthday, he has done all his milestones earlier than what Savannah did when she was little, but he has her to follow and keep up with. He started crawling early, then straight to standing and walking by the time he was 10 months old. Cannot wait to see him develop more and see what joy he can bring to the family and become.

Even though you give your mommy and daddy a run for our money, we love you with all of our hearts. We don't mind that you are all boy and love dirt, water, running and throwing things, but all we ask is that you learn to sleep all night and on a consistent basis.Oh I forgot to mention, how Austin was not really a big fan of his cake. Prior to his birthday party we took him to get his pictures taken. We undressed him down to his diaper, placed balloons next to him, then placed a cake in front of him. I figured he would love it, but instead just kind of looked at it. Finally I took my hand and gave him a bit, still nothing. I then proceeded to take his hand and dig it into the cake. At this point, he went ballistic. He started screaming and crying, he wanted nothing to do with the cake and especially didn't like being messy. We immediately grabbed a few pics of him crying and the swept him up and got him cleaned up. Once back in his clothes he was fine. Now when we gave him cake for his birthday, he liked it, but we had to feed him his cake with a fork. Not sure about this boy sometimes.

Birthday Bash

You all know how Ricky has been dying to go to Vegas, right? Well since this year was a big numbered birthday for me, guess where he said he was taking me for my 30th birthday? You guessed it, we went to Vegas. Not that I don't like Vegas myself and to see my cousin, but do you think this was my idea? We took the kiddos to Nanny and Papaw's and to Nanny Nancy's house for a couple of days and off we went just the two of us. We were gonna spend 3 days away from the kids and enjoy ourselves. We got to hang with Andy and Christina a few days, eat lots of good food, and gamble away all our money. No big winnings for this birthday boy and girl. This was the first time that we have ever been to Vegas and actually went to a show. We went and saw the The Blue Man group, which was really awesome. We had a great time just the two of us and it was a nice little refresher away from the kiddos.

The next day we got home from Vegas, we had tickets to take the kids to see Toy story 3 on Ice. I had bought these tickets way in advance and knew Savannah would love it. When we told her we were going she was so excited and could not wait. When we got there, we of course had to browse the souvenirs and of course daddy couldn't tell Savannah no. Good thing Austin was still a bit young and didn't want a souvenir of his own.

Savannah loves "Lotso" cause she is a hugger!

Austin loved when Barbie was skating along with Ken, they were playing the music, I'm a Barbie Girl. He was a bouncing on Ricky's lap, a clappin, and a screamin. I had never seen him get so ecstatic, it was hilarious. All the people around us thought it was so cute and were laughing at him as well. I asked Ricky if that was a good thing or a bad thing, Austin liking Barbie. He stated, "it's because she is a girl and is good looking, it is a good thing."

We all had a good time at Toy Story 3 on Ice.

Long time....

Okay, so I realize I am way behind and have not blogged since October but cut me some slack. This whole second child has been more of a transition for us and we are trying to stay above water. Things are much easier and we are now in somewhat of a routine, but blogging is just not up on the priority list these days. Here are some of my favorite pictures that I will just recap.

Here is the best family photo that we could get of the four of us around Christmas time.

As you all know, this winter was bitterly cold and snowy. Here are the kids and Ricky playing in the snow. As you see below, it appears Savannah was down for the count and Bear decided she was fair game. Austin loved the snow until he was put down and had to crawl in it. Apparently, it was too cold to touch, he is a smart boy!

This next picture is one of my favorites. Here is Austin getting a bath in the sink. I believe it was one of his last in the sink because as you see, he was getting a little too big and splashing all over the place.

The Harlem Globetrotters came to Terre Haute and played at the ISU arena and guess who the special guest of honor was? You guessed it, WTHI Sports Director, Rick Semmler. He got to play with the team in the first half of the game. It was quite funny to see Ricky compared to these tall, big guys and how they made fun of him. After the game, Savannah was able to get some autographs on her basketball and even one of the guys gave her his personal wrist sweatband. Here we are all in our new Colts gear we got for Christmas, thanks to Nanny and Papaw Semmler.
This year Savannah really got into the Christmas spirit. She was always excited to see Santa and enjoyed all the season festivities. Austin, well had his moments. There were times he would sit on Santa's lap and then there were times he wouldn't. This just happens to be one of those good moments. Below are just a few of the pictures we got from Portrait Innovations before Christmas and to place on our Christmas cards.